Leadership in the Workplace: Examples of Leaders That Know How to Take Initiative

We all wish we could have more leaders in our companies. The good news is that leaders aren’t born, they are built.

You can teach leadership in the workplace if people want to learn. Find people that are excited about going to the next level in their careers and give them great examples they can follow to win in business.

Continue reading this article to learn examples you can share with your employees to inspire them to take initiative.

Examples of Leadership in the Workplace

If you speak with any expert leadership advisor, they will tell you examples are a great way to learn. The following examples will help you illustrate to your teams how they can exhibit leadership at work.

Communication Is Key

Leaders must be able to communicate. If you’re too timid to speak with coworkers, bosses and other people in your industry, you won’t be a leader. Leaders learn how to communicate with people in their language. They understand that not everyone is going to “get it” when they communicate in their own way.

Understanding other people, how they’re feeling and what they’re thinking is very important to leadership.

Engage Others

Engaging with other people may be one of the most difficult acts of leadership as it takes a lot of vulnerability. You’ll have to let your guard down and get to know the people that you want to lead.

You’ll need to hear about their concerns as well as their wins. Look at their strengths, weaknesses and what they like to do at work. What are they most interested in?

When you engage with the people that you want to lead, you’ll be able to get the influence that you need to motivate them to follow you.

Think out of the Box

When given a task, a true leader thinks out of the box. They become resourceful even when resources are limited.

Let’s say there is a specific task that needs doing but the normal way that it is done isn’t possible due to loss of power, loss of equipment, someone being out of work, etc.

A leader will step forward with recommendations about how to get the job done even when the normal way isn’t available. To take it to the next level, they will simply start doing it and others will follow them since they are moving toward the end result needed.

Act Confidently

No one wants to follow a leader without confidence. If you can muster the confidence to do what you believe is the right thing, people will follow you.

Don’t mistake confidence with being insensitive to those around you. You need to take other people’s thoughts and feelings into account. As a matter of fact, when you take the way other people feel and their ideas into the equation, that is showing confidence.

Organization

Have you ever been to an event that was poorly organized? I’m sure you have and were not impressed. Leaders must learn how to organize whether that is events, people or themselves.

Being unorganized is a reflection of the inner mind and people can tell that you don’t have it together.

Act with Integrity

Can people trust you? It’s how you act when you won’t get caught. It’s how you are when there aren’t going to be consequences that people pay attention to.

If you constantly act with integrity, people know that they can trust you. And they will want to follow your lead.

Adapt as Needed

Much like being resourceful, leaders can adapt. Many people do not do well with change. They are resistant and find it difficult to function when things don’t go the way they thought they were going to go.

Delegation

If you have to do everything yourself and can’t trust anyone to do things for you, you can’t be a true leader. You have to delegate and trust people to do things as you’ve asked them. If they aren’t done perfectly, instead of getting upset, use it as a teachable moment to help build up that person.

Empowerment

The most powerful leaders are the ones that empower others to do things they might not have otherwise believed they could do.

Think of the person that has been at the company for years but has never gone after that big promotion. The position is open and they are thinking about going for it.

Give them a boost of confidence and suggest they go after the promotion. True leaders are never afraid that other people will outshine them.

Recognition

Leaders are more than happy to recognize those on the team that are really hitting home runs. Recognition doesn’t only have to be in public but a personal high five or thank you can go a long way.

People love to be noticed and not only that, when they are recognized, it is much more likely they are going to perform well and continue to do the things you recognized them for.

Great leaders know how to find things they can be genuinely thankful for and give recognition for.

Understanding Business and Growing Your Knowledge Base

Now that you understand more about how to show your workers leadership in the workplace, you can read many of our other top business articles.

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